FIRST NIGHT AUSTIN 2009

Build it, burn it - and they will come to First Night

For artists Dave Umlas and Merrilee Ratcliffe, the satisfaction is in the ephemeral - like 34-foot clock that burns

By Jeanne Claire van Ryzin
AMERICAN-STATESMAN ARTS WRITER
Monday, December 29, 2008

Perhaps, the most meaningful things in life are those that don't last forever - at least not in any concrete manner.

Artists Dave Umlas and Merrilee Ratcliffe think so. The two have built many large-scale installation projects that are designed to disappear after being introduced to the public. Specifically, the pair - along with a constantly changing clan of collaborators - have built large-scale installations meant to make a dramatic impact when they're introduced at an event like Maker's Faire or Burning Man. Then, the installations are burned to the ground.

Now, for First Night Austin 2009, the family-friendly arts-centered New Year's Eve celebration downtown, the pair has something new and very grand to introduce - and burn.

"Resolution Clock" is a 34-foot fully functioning dual-faced wooden clock installed on Auditorium Shores, the ending destination of First Night's Grand Procession. Throughout the day Wednesday, visitors can attach their New Year's resolutions to the clock's massive wooden chain. Then, as the procession winds down Congress Avenue and the South First Street bridge, and as crowds assemble about 8 p.m. at Auditorium Shores, fireworks will shoot off the clock, and the entire structure will begin to burn.

"There's a lot of ego and ownership wrapped up in a work of art," Umlas says. "We like to make things that no one can possess, but that everyone can come and experience together."

And create together. Since starting work on the project last month, Umlas and Ratcliffe have had an ever-widening circle of friends and acquaintances joining the work sessions that sometimes stretch to the wee hours of the morning in the giant workshop behind the couple's North Austin home, headquarters of their collective Community Art Makers. Some 30 people who worked on the clock will don spirited black and neon orange outfits to supervise the activities surrounding the clock on First Night Austin.

"People have been coming together around fire forever," says Umlas, of the inspiration to build and burn. "Fire is primal."

So is art. And demystifying the creative process as well as the creative experience is a fundamental part of the couple's aesthetic philosophy. So is leaving no trace of their art adventures. Although they deliberately build massively scaled artworks, they not only clean all their sites, they purchase carbon credits to offset the smoke from the fire. "This project is actually carbon negative," Ratcliffe says. "It's meant to be a disappearing act as much as anything."

That disappearing is meant metaphorically as well.

"It's very meaningful to put something out in the world and let it go," Ratcliffe says. "The idea (behind "Resolution Clock") is that people can leave what they like in 2008 and start the new year fresh."

The couple received just a little more than $15,000 from the organizers of First Night Austin to build "Resolution Clock," an amount that just barely covers supplies and required insurance, never mind the countless hours they've dedicated to the project since mid-November.

But they're clearly not in the community art-making business to get rich.

"Having probably thousands of people in one place all paying attention to the same thing?" Ratcliffe says. "That's just magic."

jvanryzin@statesman.com; 445-3699

First Night Austin 2009

When: 3 p.m. to midnight Wednesday. Grand Procession begins at 6 p.m.

Where: Activities centered on Austin City Hall, South First Street Bridge and Auditorium Shores.

Grand Procession route: The parade starts at 6 p.m. at Seventh Street and Congress Avenue, proceeds down Congress and across Cesar Chavez Street and then across the South First Street Bridge to Auditorium Shores.

Family Finale: 7:50 to 8 p.m. Auditorium Shores

Fireworks Finale: Midnight over Lady Bird Lake

Cost: Free. Concessions for sale at a food court on West Cesar Chavez Street near City Hall.

Information: For a complete schedule of events and downloadable maps, go to www.firstnightaustin.org.

First Night Austin 2009 art projects highlights

In addition to the `Resolution Clock,' there are dozens of projects happening during First Night Austin 2009. A sampling:

Public Address.'

Artist Barna Kantor has created two sculptural public-address systems that will be set 800 feet apart across the South First Street bridge and on the opposing banks of Lady Bird Lake. Everyone is welcome to come to the microphone and sing, shout, speechify, rap and make whatever noise they want to - and hear whatever is coming from the other side of the lake.

Where: South First Street bridge

When: 3 p.m. to midnight

Acoustic Chandelier: Music of the Spheres.'

Created from an often overlooked piece of urban architecture - the small gazebo on Auditorium Shores beneath the South First Street bridge - the `Acoustic Chandelier' is an instrument meant to be played by the public. Artist Johnny Walker has assembled dozens of chimes on the interior of the gazebo with some chimes tuned to familiar Western music scales and some tuned to Asian music scales. Everyone is invited to play the chimes.

Where: Auditorium Shores

When: 3 p.m. to midnight

'Fabric of the Hour: Aerial Dance' and 'Connie Kirk and the New Testament Choir.'

Dancers Nicole Whiteside and Alicia Marie Carlin, along with rigger Corey Fields, bring their dramatic aerial dance moves to the soaring three-story lobby of Austin's City Hall. Accompanied by gospel singer Connie Kirk and the New Testament Choir, the dancers will gracefully dangle from swaths of fabric to perform their lyric moves.

Where: City Hall Lobby Atrium, 301 W. Second St.

When: 5 p.m. and 8:45 p.m.

'Various Permutations.'

A continuous video installation by Elliott Terral, `Various Permutations' is a collage of footage of the Austin environs shot mostly from discarded and recycled cell phones - an attempt to digitally break down elements of life within Austin, says the artist. Cast on to the front of City Hall, the abstract video images become more abstract as the audience passes into the path of the projection.

Where: Exterior of City Hall

When: 6 p.m. to midnight

'The Wool Room.'

A living room sculpture by fiber artist Cory Skuldt constructed entirely of recycled wool sweaters, `The Wool Room' will morph throughout First Night as everyone is invited to sew, knit or otherwise add to the piece from materials provided.

Where: South First Street bridge

When: 3 p.m. to midnight